


Blow a Kiss, Fire a Gun

by youareaprogram



Series: Reyes Vidal Prompts [6]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: I'm not even drunk ask my alcohol, Just drabble pre-High Noon quest, M/M, Might do some more actually ooops, OK I might be drunk writing don't judge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-19
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-20 18:59:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10668825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youareaprogram/pseuds/youareaprogram
Summary: Just a small drabble about Reyes and Ryder (from Reyes' POV) before the showdown during the quest High Noon happens. Spoilers obviously. Tried to keep Ryder vague but he's a dude.





	Blow a Kiss, Fire a Gun

**Author's Note:**

> Hey so yeah. I've not done this writing kinda thing before but I am wanting to get back into writing my own fiction so this is kinda helpful to me? So yeah, maybe drunk posting isn't the best idea ever but oh well. Let me know if I've made mistakes, if you like or hate it or whatever. And yeah thanks for reading.  
> (+5 points to the people who can find the blatant New Vegas line rip-off and +5 points to the people who figure out what shit-ass song I'm using as the title for my drunk-writing.)  
> ((Also yeah I know 698 is an awkward word count number oops))

Salt and sulphur-encrusted Kadara housed a menagerie of colourful people, looking to live free from under the thumb of the Nexus. Some came to seek their fortunes out in the Badlands or in the seedy port, some simply to escape the Nexus’ strictures. There was the asari matriarch who served as an advisor to the Citadel council back in the Milky Way and was now head of security at a dingy bar in the slums. There was the decorated military couple; a human and a turian that, despite being on opposing sides during First Contact, married years later before coming to Andromeda where the two men had set up shop to the west of Kadara port, brewing all kinds of moonshine for Sloane and her goons.

Reyes loved that about Kadara. The promise of beginning again somewhere new was something they had all left the Milky Way for in the first place after all, but old grudges, and older prejudices, soured the frontier dream. The Initiative had failed in that regard, and so Reyes had jumped ship (quite literally as he seems to recall) as soon as he was able. While not exactly supporting the uprising, he saw the potential of it. In order to make something of himself here in Andromeda, he needed to leave the Nexus; there was no way a person’s past could be forgotten in that cheap Citadel knock-off.

Reyes sipped the low-cost whisky in front of him, straight from the bottle Umi had passed him for a handful of creds. It was a bottle from one of the new distilleries; he wasn’t going to hand over a small fortune for a 600-year aged bottle of whisky when there were perfectly treasurable bottles of whisky transported from the Milky Way just waiting to be recovered.

  
_Like an ancient artifact. But more fun._

 

Reyes looked around the bar. Kralla’s Song was especially lively tonight – a krogan pirate was starting some commotion near the bar whilst Umi looked on in boredom. Not that behaviour like that was unexpected; Sloane’s gruff demeanour and gruffer face didn’t exactly invite the cream of society. Not that he disapproved - quite the opposite in fact: he had quickly become bored of the stuffiness of the Nexus and their rules. If the Outcasts wanted to survive out here and thrive, despite the acidic planet, things would need to change. Sloane was just bad for business.

  
_And that’s where he came in. Well, if everything went to plan._

 

Thankfully he had already rigged the game in his favour from the start; Kaetus was beaten and bloodied somewhere, Ryder and Sloane were on their way to the meet. Everything was ready, game set and match.

 

_High noon._

 

He chuckled to himself and sipped from the bottle. He knew it was cheesy and cliché but he couldn’t resist – sometimes he wondered whether he became involved in this business after leaving for Andromeda purely for the drama of it all.  
He let the dark amber liquid course down his throat and he sighed out a long whisky-breath. Staring out of the terrace overlooking the Kadaran cliffs, Ryder’s words ricocheted between each of his nerve endings.

 

_Reyes is a better man than you think_

 

He knew it wasn’t true – Ryder had no clue about who he was and what he’d done. Reyes had made sure of it in fact; he wanted the younger man to continue thinking he was a good man. Ryder was wrong of course, Reyes knew that. Reyes was sly, manipulative and a liar. A coward some might say, for not confronting Sloane directly instead hiding behind covers and codenames. Reyes was a selfish man; he took what he wanted without thought of the consequences of those around him.

Reyes took another sip.

And yet the idea of Ryder, the starry-eyed man who saw the good in almost everything and everyone (with some unasked-for sarcasm thrown in for good measure) was…comforting to him, more than he thought it ever could be.

This is not the time for this he corrected himself, draining the last dregs from the bottle before he slipped out of the bar before Umi could hassle him for his tab.


End file.
